1963 The Slime People

• Directed by: Robert Hutton
• Written by: Blair Robertson, Vance Skarstedt
• Stars: Robert Hutton, Les Tremayne, Robert Burton
• Run Time: 1 Hour, 16 Minutes
• Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ad8ajnQDbVw

Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone

Slime people from underground isolate an area of California under an impenetrable force field dome and release a deadly fog in an attempt to invade. But a heroic group fights them off. It’s not the worst movie we’ve seen, but it was featured on Mystery Science Theater for a reason. It’s low budget with mediocre acting and dialogue, entertaining at points but clunky in the pacing. We’d recommend you pass on this one.

Spoilery Synopsis

We open on… slime people walking through the fog– and there’s a dead man. Credits roll.

There’s so much fog that Tom can’t land his airplane. Los Angeles tells him to divert North, and they are very insistent. He lands anyway, and there’s no one anywhere in the airport.

Professor Galbraith and his daughters drive up and say he needs to go with them. Lisa and Bonnie explain how the slime men arrived and wiped out all the military. The family had been staying up in their remote cabin and missed the whole invasion.

Tom’s a sportscaster for the news, and he wants to go to the station to see if they have any footage of the slime monsters. He plays the newsreel, and sure enough, there are slime people invading Los Angeles.

They came from the sewers, not from outer space. They hide in the fog, which they make somehow. The fog can harden at times, which is lethal.

The group encounters a slime person and hides inside a studio. They run into Cal, a soldier. Cal tells them about the solid wall around the city that the fog made.

Bonnie likes Cal, and Cal likes Bonnie, so we stop the story so they can flirt.

Lisa takes care of the cooking and coffee while Tom and the professor theorize about the dome. Tom and Lisa get a bit romantic. And he helps with the coffee.

Tom, Lisa and the professor run into Tolliver the shepherd at his cabin. He’s a bit whacky, and says he doesn’t believe the slime people are dangerous. They bring him along but refuse to include his favorite goat. Cal and Bonnie are in a separate car, and they all go toward the wall to investigate it. The temperature continues to drop, which is what the slime people are trying to do so they can live above ground permanently.

Tom and the professor go into the woods toward the wall while the others stay behind. Then they just leave Tolliver behind as they head in. They try various chemicals to burn through the wall, but they don’t have much luck.

After all this, Tolliver still thinks the whole thing is irrational and not real. Reality hits him hard. The group hides in a butcher shop, but the creature gets Tolliver. The professor figures out that plain old salt will break down the fog wall.

Somehow, Bonnie gets caught by a monster and taken away. Tom and Cal go off to find her in the mist. They find a cave that the creatures are using as a headquarters and sneak inside. Cal finds Bonnie and leads her out as Tom fights with the slime men.

On the way back to the butcher shop, the trio find the machine that makes the fog. But there are too many slime people around to get close. They all head to the wall with salt water solution in buckets that the professor says will get them through. But Tom wants to go take out the generating machine.

After they battle the slime people, the wall machine blows up with a simple spear-throw, and all the fog immediately dissipates. All the slime men fall down dead without the fog to breathe.

With the wall down, soldiers pour in, and all the good guys ride away.

Brian’s Commentary

Slow-moving mudmen with spears and magic fog conquered Los Angeles? Well, OK then. The really scary thing? Look at the prices at the butcher shop; three pounds of bacon for a dollar!

The acting and dialogue are pretty horrible. The creatures are adequate for a movie of this period, but they aren’t very stand-out. Also, there’s a lot of fog to obscure the cheap-looking rubber suits. The pacing is really bad; I dozed off for a couple of minutes and didn’t miss a thing. There are a lot of scenes of driving and walking where not much else happens.

Bleah. Dull.

Kevin’s Commentary

The Slime People have the technology to project an impenetrable force field dome and generate a massive amount of climate changing fog, but walk around carrying spears and knives like a primitive tribe.

Other than a fog machine and some people in rubbery costumes (which the trivia says took about half the budget), the effects pretty are minimal.

The acting and dialogue are pretty bad. It’s not a terrible story, but the pacing isn’t steady or very exciting. I wouldn’t recommend it.